My oldest had night terrors exactly like your describing. It is awful, it brought me to tears more times than I can count. It was scary to see my baby like that. He was 2. He did outgrow them before turning three and none of my other children have had them (yet), dd is too young.

I found that the less physical intervention the better. Simple connections like 'its okay, Mommys here, Im right here, it's okay...' helped more. Every time I tried picking him up or holding him he would fight me violently. I could always tell wen he came to. And my son never remembered them in the morning.